CBSA Opens Wheat Gluten Dumping Investigation: Italy, Poland, UK Shipments Now Under SIMA Review

CBSA Opened the File June 19

CBSA initiated a dumping investigation on June 19, 2026 into wheat gluten (HS 1109.00.00.00) originating in or exported from Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The complaint came from ADM Agri-Industries Co. on April 30. This is a standard SIMA track: preliminary determination is due within 90 days of initiation, which puts us at mid-September for provisional duty rates to land.

If you import wheat gluten and your CADs show origin IT, PL, or GB, you’re about to carry anti-dumping (AD) financial security on every shipment for the next twelve to eighteen months while CBSA and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) work through injury and margin calculations. That security sits on top of your RPP bond or gets posted as cash per transaction if you’re filing RMD or don’t hold an RPP.

What Happens Between Now and Provisional Rates

CBSA has 90 days from June 19 to make a preliminary determination of dumping. If they find enough evidence that normal values in Italy, Poland, or the UK exceed the export price to Canada, they’ll publish provisional AD duty rates, typically expressed as a percentage of the transaction value or as a fixed dollar amount per kilogram, depending on how the margins shake out.

Once provisional rates are published, every CAD you file against subject goods from those three countries will require financial security equal to the provisional duty. If you’re on RPP, CBSA recalculates your bond ceiling to include the exposure. If your bond was already tight after CARM’s K84 monthly statements started hitting, this is the conversation that tips you into a bond increase or a switch to per-transaction cash deposits.

The provisional period runs up to 120 days while CITT runs the injury phase. If CITT finds material injury or threat of injury, CBSA moves to final determinations and the duties become permanent (subject to five-year sunset review). If CITT finds no injury, the file closes and any security posted gets refunded. In practice, most SIMA cases that make it to provisional also make it to final.

CAD Filing and SIMA Code Requirements

You’re required to declare SIMA status on the CAD. When provisional rates publish, CBSA will assign a SIMA code (usually starts with “20” in the old system; CARM maps it into the CAD’s duty/tax line). If you miss the declaration or code it wrong, you’re looking at an AMPS penalty under the Customs Act for incorrect or incomplete information, and CBSA will assess the duty retroactively with interest.

If you’re working with a supplier in Italy, Poland, or the UK and they’re willing to provide verifiable normal value documentation (home-market pricing, cost buildup, whatever CBSA accepts for that exporter), you may be able to argue a company-specific rate lower than the country-wide margin. That requires cooperation from the foreign exporter during CBSA’s investigation phase, and it’s not automatic. Most importers just eat the provisional rate and wait for final.

NRI Exposure

If you’re importing wheat gluten as a non-resident importer (NRI) and your Canadian consignee isn’t the legal importer of record, make sure your SIN or BN15 is properly registered in CARM and your compliance documentation trail is clean. SIMA cases draw audits. CBSA pulls transaction files, examines transfer pricing between related parties, and checks that declared values match commercial invoices and payment records. If your NRI structure relies on a toll manufacturing or consignment model, document it now before the preliminary determination publishes.

Financial Security Math

Provisional AD rates on food ingredients in past cases have ranged from low single digits to over 200 percent of transaction value when dumping margins are severe. Wheat gluten is a commodity input with tight margins; even a 15 percent provisional duty changes your landed cost and your bond ceiling meaningfully.

Example: you import 40,000 kg per month, CAD value roughly CAD 60,000. A 15 percent provisional rate is CAD 9,000 per shipment. Your RPP bond needs to cover at least one monthly accounting period of duties and taxes, so that’s an additional CAD 9,000 to CAD 18,000 in bond exposure depending on how CBSA calculates your release prior to payment ceiling. If your bond was already CAD 150,000 and you’re sitting at 80 percent utilization on the K84, you’re now over. Either you post a bond increase (which costs annual premium) or you post cash per CAD until the investigation closes.

If you’re not on RPP and you’re filing RMD or PARS with payment on final, you’ll need to post cash security at the time of accounting, every single CAD, until final determination or termination. That’s a working capital hit most importers aren’t budgeted for.

Supplier and Sourcing Alternatives

Wheat gluten from countries outside the scope (e.g., Germany, France, Australia, or domestic Canadian production) is not subject to the investigation. If you can source from a non-subject country without blowing up your supply agreement or your quality spec, now is the time to have that conversation. Switching origin mid-year usually means new supplier qualification, new purchase orders, and new freight lanes, but it may be cheaper than carrying 15 to 50 percent AD duty for eighteen months.

If you do switch origin, make sure your certificates of origin and commercial invoices clearly reflect the new country. CBSA will verify. If the goods are produced in Poland but transshipped through Germany and your paperwork shows DE origin, that’s a misrepresentation and you’ll get assessed the AD duty retroactively plus AMPS penalties. The CBSA verification process includes requests for mill certificates, supplier declarations, and production records. Don’t guess.

Timeline and What to Watch

CBSA posts investigation updates and preliminary determination notices on the CBSA SIMA registry. Preliminary determination is due by mid-September 2026. Provisional duties, if imposed, take effect the day after publication in the Canada Gazette. You get zero advance notice between Gazette publication and enforcement; your broker sees the rate table update in CARM and starts posting security that same day.

CITT preliminary injury determination is due 60 days after CBSA’s preliminary dumping finding. Final determinations follow roughly 120 days after provisional. The entire investigation, start to finish, typically runs twelve to fifteen months unless there’s a scope challenge or a ministerial extension.

If your shipments are in transit or sitting at the port when provisional rates publish, they’re subject. Release prior to payment still works, but the security gets posted on accounting. If you’ve got a container on the water from Gdansk right now and it clears in late September, budget for the duty.

Filing and Record-Keeping

Keep every commercial invoice, packing list, purchase order, payment record, and origin certificate for SIMA-subject goods for six years. CBSA runs post-determination verifications, especially in cases involving related-party transactions or valuation questions. If your value for duty is based on a transfer price and CBSA decides it’s below fair market, they’ll adjust the duty base upward and the AD duty climbs with it.

If you’re filing your own CADs in CARM, double-check that the HS code, origin country, and SIMA code all align. If you’re using a broker, make sure they know the file is open and that they’re watching for the preliminary rate publication. Most brokerage teams track active SIMA investigations, but if you switched brokers recently or you’re on a low-touch service tier, confirm it’s on their radar.

Warehouse and Drayage Timing

If you’re consolidating wheat gluten shipments at a Montreal sufferance warehouse before distribution, remember that duty and security are due on accounting, not on physical release. You can still use release prior to payment and defer accounting up to five business days, but the clock on your monthly K84 statement and your bond utilization starts at release. If your inbound freight is landing at the Port of Montreal and you’re running cross-dock or short-term storage before onward moves, coordinate with your warehouse provider so that release timing and accounting deadlines don’t collide with month-end bond limits.

CBSA examinations on SIMA-subject goods also tick up during investigation periods. If your container gets pulled for exam, expect an extra two to three business days before release and budget for the exam fee (currently CAD 250 for the first hour, additional increments billed after). Exam delays compound if your drayage appointment at the warehouse is tight or if you’re trying to hit a production schedule inland.

What We’re Telling Clients

If you’ve got wheat gluten CADs coming from Italy, Poland, or the UK, talk to your broker about bond sizing and cash security planning before mid-September. Run the math on what a 15, 25, or 50 percent provisional rate does to your monthly duty liability and your RPP bond ceiling. If the number pushes you over, either post a bond increase now or set aside cash.

If you can source from a non-subject country without breaking your supply chain, evaluate it this month. If you’re locked into a contract with an EU supplier in scope, ask whether they’ll cooperate with CBSA’s exporter questionnaire to try for a company-specific rate.

Provisional duties are not optional and they’re not negotiable. Once they publish, every CAD gets hit. Plan now or pay later.

We run SIMA filings and bond recalculations every month. If your September import plan just became a bonding problem, get in touch.

Source: CSCB